Task Force 57: The British Pacific Fleet, 1944-45

Formed in 1944 the British Pacific Fleet was to fight alongside the Americans and so was given an American codename - Task Force 57. But the Pacific theatre was unlike anything the British had experienced before. Surface action was rare and major engagements were fought at ranges of 200 miles. The veterans of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Sea had to start again and from the air faced a new deadly enemy - the Kamikaze. Although overshadowed in numbers by the vast American task forces, Task Force 57 made a decisive contribution to victory in the Far East. Peter Smith's volume was the first to fully recount their story and still remains a definitive account of this 'forgotten fleet'.